Psalms Lesson 40

Psalm 89:20-52

Psalm 89, hopefully we can finish Psalm 89, in any case it’s been good preparation for the thinking of the book of Hebrews that sooner or later we’ll get to. Psalm 89 is a Royal Psalm, it’s royal by virtue of its content. It’s individual lament by virtue of its form. We’ve dealt with Psalm 2 which was a Royal Psalm and Psalm 89 is also a Royal Psalm. These Royal Psalms are important in many ways, but the key reason why these are important is that they show you how Christ works, the office of Christ, and therefore who Jesus of Nazareth must be if He’s going to fulfill the office of the Christ.

We dealt with the first four verses, the psalmist declares his praise because he trusts in the Davidic Covenant. And then verse 5-18 we dealt with, God is praiseworthy because of various items, His uniqueness, His acts, His ownership, His nature and His blessings. Then we began section three, verses 19-37 and this was when the psalmist repeated God’s declaration of the covenant and the duration of the covenant. So verses 19-37 rehash the same material that 2 Samuel speaks of and it gives us the Davidic Covenant.

Now let’s just review a moment. There are many covenants mentioned in Scripture but there are a certain minimum number that you should be familiar with. What is the first covenant mentioned in God’s Word, the first time the word “covenant” occurs in God’s Word, and it sets the model, it sets the tone and the pace for everything else that follows? [someone answers] All right, there apparently is an Adamic covenant but the word “covenant” doesn’t occur in the text. Where does the word “covenant” first occur. The Noahic Covenant. And this is again, it’s not to say that the covenants weren’t there before but God didn’t chose to reveal them until we come to the Noahic Covenant and there’s a reason for the Holy Spirit’s reluctance to let us in on the form of a covenant until we get to this point in history, because until we get to this point in history we have no real clear idea of how all comprehensive these covenants are. The Noahic Covenant is a model because in the Noahic Covenant God’s promises include the total physical environment… the total physical environment! And the implication is that if God can control the total physical environment then God can take care of any of our needs within that physical environment. So that’s why the Noahic Covenant is so critical; it over-arches everything, it’s the basis for everything else that works out.

The next covenant in line is the Abrahamic Covenant; the Abrahamic Covenant carries on the theme of redemption further, specifying it, limiting it to the family of Ahav, or Abraham, and then the next covenant after that of an unconditional nature is what is known as the Covenant to the Levites, the priestly covenant, which we haven’t spoken of much but it’s in Numbers, it promises the fact that the Levites will always be the priests of Israel. And after that we come to the Davidic Covenant, there’s another one that’s sometimes mentioned as a covenant but we’ll forget that one for a moment. The Abrahamic Covenant and the Davidic Covenant. The Davidic Covenant narrows again and makes more specific the Abrahamic Covenant, it follows the line of the Abrahamic Covenant in that salvation, redemption of the world, is coming through this God-ordained channel. That God has a certain way, He is working history out, He didn’t consult us when He originated the plan, He has just informed us this is the way it is, period. So therefore we have to accept the fact that the royal family is a Jewish family out of the seed of Abraham.

And in this section, in verse 19, we concluded last time by taking verse 19 and comparing it to the historical text of 2 Samuel 7:4. We did that to show you that when we speak in the Psalms about what God has done, you notice here in verse 19 the subject of the verb is God. But when you deal with 2 Samuel 7, what was the subject involved. We traced this back to 2 Samuel 7 when it actually occurred in history and we said look, when it says in verse 19, “Thou speaks in vision to the holy ones, and You said, I have laid help upon on who that is might; I have exalted one chosen out of the people, [20] I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him,” who actually did the historical anointing? Samuel. Samuel was a prophet.

Now verse 19 and 20 are very insightful, if you pause for a moment and just pay attention, because they’ll show you how a prophet functions. They will also answer the question that frequently occurs about why God takes so seriously rejection of His prophets. A rejection of a prophet is tantamount to rejection of God. This is why Elisha could curse the children who cursed him; people say oh gee, that’s in the Bible. Yes, that’s in the Bible, these little kids were ridiculing Elisha, he turned around and he cursed them. But this is considered to be one of those texts that show the moral weaknesses of the Old Testament. Not at all, the children in ridiculing Elisha were ridiculing Elisha’s God. It’s the old idea that you ridicule the person who is being represented. And people who ridicule the prophets are themselves ridiculing God and reserve the damnation of God.

Now why do I say this? Because verses 19-20 should reaffirm the word of the prophets. Remember the passage in the Gospels when the man in hell asked Abraham if somebody, some messenger could be sent to his home because certainly if someone were to rise from the dead and go warn his unbelieving brothers, then they would believe. And he made a petition out of agony for his family on earth while he was in Sheol. Do you remember what the answer was? Remember the answer, they have Moses and the prophets. Oh but Lord, if we just send somebody there to do a few miracles, then they’d believe. No, if they didn’t believe Moses and the prophets they won’t believed anybody else. Oh, but if you could just get somebody that would do a few magic tricks, a little spectacular fireworks, certain they’d believe then. No, if the do not believe Moses and the prophets, they will not believe, period! And this is probably one of the most sobering doctrines that have to do with inspiration.

When we deal with inspiration of Scripture we’re talking about the word of the prophets that we hold in our lap. And that we are held responsible for our reaction and responses to the Word of God that we hold in our laps. Most of my remarks do not really pertain directly to most of you because the people who are here Wednesday nights are usually people who are serious. But it’s very interesting to watch the Sunday morning group each week. As you saw last Sunday we were almost full and people say what are you going to do when the place gets full. Nothing. It’s just that the people who are serious will come earlier and the people who aren’t will just be left out. The reason why I do not take the head count seriously at the 11:00 o’clock service is because it’s not a serious group. The real head count should be taken Sunday and Wednesday night; that’s the real head count of what you have. The proof of the pudding is when you do some counseling work with them; it all comes out then. The people who have problems who are usual 11:00 o’clockers inevitably are people who do not understand the Word of God. And one of the sobering experiences that you have as a pastor and one that goes back to this theme in Psalm 89 is that you wonder why, O Lord, after 3-4 years of exposure to the Word, why do these people seem to become more blind than they were when they first came. I never understood that until I began to mediate seriously upon the inspired Scripture as the word of the prophets. And when you do this you realize that in listening un-seriously to the Word of God, they have done their souls harm. It would be better had they not even come in here at 11:00 o’clock than to have come in here and heard the Word of God and then turned away; it would have been far more healthy for their souls never to have heard the Word in the first place than to have heard it and turned against it in an un-serious way. So the word of the prophets is something that you always face and you’re damned if you do and blessed if you don’t, in this case. There’s no neutral ground; once the prophet has spoken, that is God speaking.

Now notice, go back to verse 20, Samuel, if you were there with a motion picture camera and you carefully photographed this thing you wouldn’t have seen any spooky lights around, you wouldn’t have heard any mystical voices from the clouds above, nothing like that at all, you could have gotten it all on film and you could have had a tape recording and you could have perfectly recorded a simple little act of taking a little anointing oil and putting it on this dirty teenager boy’s head. That’s all it was, and nothing very spectacular, and yet God and His Word says in verses 20, “I have anointed David.” You see the significance of a little act that you could photograph, that you could touch, that you could experience, that no one there would have really taken seriously, but God did, because God said I did it.

Now the same thing, I am convinced, is going to happen to all of us that when we face the Bema Seat as believers, and God forbid any who are unbelievers who will face another seat, but those who are believers who face the Bema Seat will be called to task as to why, when I spoke to you, did you not obey Me. And we’ll probably say oh Lord, when did you speak to us. When you read My Word, that’s when I spoke to you. And why didn’t you obey what I told you to do. That’s a very sobering thing to reflect upon, that the Word that you hold in your lap, a book, printed just like any book, is not just a book, it is God’s Word and God takes it seriously.

Now verse 21 as we continue this recapitulation of the Davidic Covenant. “With whom My hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him.” Now keep in mind how the psalmist looks at history. What do you suppose the last clause of verse 21 refers to. “My arm also shall strengthen him.” “My hand shall be established.” Turn to 2 Chronicles 11, this is the use of the verb to “strengthen,” and again, like I did in verses 19-20 I’m taking you back into history to show you what was really going on and then we’ll pop over to the Psalm and see how the psalmist sees it; so we’re looking at the same historic event two different ways. I’m doing this, I’m rocking back and forth from one view to the other view, from one view to the other view until it clicks as to how the psalmists view history.

2 Chron. 11:13 we’re introduced to how God strengthened the nation. So here if you had a motion picture camera and a tape recorder, this is what you would have seen empirically. “And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their borders. [14] For the Levites left their suburban lands and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the LORD.” This is another historic reference when they were kicked out of the northern kingdom and came south. Verse 15, “And he ordained [appointed] for himself priests for the high places, and for the demons, and for the calves which he had made. [16] And after them out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came to Jerusalem, [to sacrifice unto the LORD God of their fathers.]” So you have a group of positive volition priests, the role of the priest in Israel was to teach the Word of God, primarily, and also officiate at the temple, but all the priests, obviously couldn’t officiate at the temple. So the priests actually did most of the teaching of the Torah, or the Law, they did the instructing. And priests were used in civilian courts, priests were used in the military, priests were used in business agreements and negotiations. Priests were used in every phase of society, it wasn’t a so-called separation of church and state in the sense we usually think of it. The priesthood participated in every kind of thing, from business transactions to military. They were always on hand to present the authority of the Torah, the sacred word of Yahweh.

Now, this describes what they did in verse 17, and here’s the same verb, this is how it is meant to be used. “So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong, three years, for three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.” Now they “strengthened the kingdom.” How did the Levite priests strengthen the kingdom? They “strengthened the kingdom” by taking the Word, which at that time was the Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible, that’s what the Law was, and they applied that in the area of business, they applied it in the area of military, they applied it in the area or worship at the temple, they applied it in the area of real estate, they applied it all over the place. And I want you to see that the strengthening, the verb “to strengthen” means to strengthen in ALL areas, not just the private devotional life. The strengthening is across the board as this verb is used.

Now if that’s what the history of the whole thing is and that’s what the priests are doing in all these different areas, strengthening the kingdom of Judah, now come back to Psalm 89 and let’s see if we can understand verse 21. God promises David in the Davidic Covenant, “With whom,” that is with David, it’s not talking about David’s descendants yet, “With whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him,” this means it will bless him. And David was probably the all-time blessed believer in history. This is a guess, we don’t have a positive declaration from God’s Word, but if we were to cite a candidate for the most blessing award it would probably go to David.

David received blessing in areas that most of us would never dream of. David was blessed in the military, Solomon wasn’t. Nobody else was in history, maybe Joshua competed with David there, but Joshua wasn’t blessed as David was in the area of creativity, song writing, music, development of the culture of Israel. Joshua didn’t do that. Solomon did that but Solomon wasn’t blessed in the military. So though Joshua and Solomon participated in blessing, David participated in both areas. David was blessed in many, many different areas, all over the board. Any area of legitimate human activity that you can encounter David was blessed. Why? His attitude in his heart; David was not a plaster saint, that was not the qualification for blessing. David was just a man who would readily admit his failure and he would be pliable in God’s hand. I think that’s the key to David’s life is that he’s pliable, if God wants to move him over here, okay God, move me over there. And that’s the way David was. He wasn’t stubborn like Saul; Saul was very righteous and very moral, would have passed any test for moral character, but he was inflexible and stubborn and rebellious; David was not.

Verse 22, “The enemy shall not exact from him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. [23] I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague those who hate him.” You see all of this includes the promises there would be blessing. Obviously verse 23 is talking about military blessing. Verse 24, “But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him,” notice the repetition again in this Psalm, “faithfulness” and “mercy,” the word “mercy” is chesed, which means covenant love. Remember those two words, amen, trustworthiness and chesed, those two words occur over and over and over again in this Psalm. “…and in My name shall his horn be exalted.” Now the word “horn” in Scripture means political power, and in Daniel you see that horn used, and you don’t have to worry about interpreting it if you just read the rest of the Bible; it comes very easy if you just understand how horn was used. In fact, if you look at a crown today, do you realize where that picture of a crown came from? The first crowns in ancient history were leather bands and they had horns kind of riveted onto this leather band, sort of like the things you see the Vikings wear and so on. That was the early crown. And this business that we see is just kind of an artistic symbolic representation of this. But the first crowns were actual literal horns that were worn by the person in power. Thus we read in Scripture, “his horn shall be exalted.” That is, the sign of his authority will be exalted. But notice how, “in My name,” “My name” refers to the essence of God, God would be able to bless David through His character.

Now verses 25-28, this deals with some of the other features of David’s blessing and defines a certain position for us as Christians. “I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. [26] He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. [27] Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. [28] My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.”

Now the phrase in verse 25, “I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.” Do you have an inkling of what that verse refers to. Do any of you get out of that verse a more specific interpretation? What do you suppose that is talking about. Think of David literally and God blessing David in history. What do you suppose it means to set one hand in the sea and the other hand in the rivers. [someone answers] Okay, the geographical area of David’s kingdom, this is one of the prognoses of the geographic area of his kingdom. Now if you have a map in your Bible just look at it for a moment. The original boundaries of the nation Israel are to a river, and there’s a debate among Christians as to the Wadi El Arish or the Nile, but there’s a boundary to the southwest, obviously the Mediterranean Sea, see the word, sea, that’s one boundary. That’s the western boundary of David’s kingdom. The southern boundary is the Wadi El Arish or the Nile, whichever one you take. And then to the northeast the two rivers, the Tigris-Euphrates River system. This may astound you to realize that God promises all this to Israel, in spite of the United Nations. Now if they have trouble attaining the western bank of the Jordan can you image what would happen if modern day Israel laid claim to their Biblical boundaries, displacing Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and a few other countries. Needless to say there would be a slight commotion on the international scene. But this shows you the true scope of Israel.

Now we come to a problem, and however you treat this problem you’re going to wind up in one of two Christian camps. And that is has that promise of David been literally fulfilled in history or not. We call two positions, amillennial or premillennial. The amillennial position, and many people who are believers who hold to an inerrant Scriptures, who are creationists, nevertheless and not premillennialists; you don’t treat these people as though they’ve got some sort of religious BO, you just relax and understand that they have their own system of interpreting Scripture. The amillennialist does not believe there will be a millennium; “a” none. “Pre” means Christ will come before the millennial kingdom and set it up. Now what is the millennial kingdom, what does it have to do with. One of the things it has to do with is that, the Davidic boundaries. Has God fulfilled His promises yet. If He has, we have no right to look for them to be fulfilled in the future. But if He hasn’t yet fulfilled His promises, then He has got to fulfill them in the future or He’s a liar. So that’s the way this case stands. And many, one very prominent religious denomination makes a specialty of proponing amillennialism and ridiculing premillennialism.

Hold the place and turn back to 1 Kings 4:21 it looks like this promise has been fulfilled literally. And this is a verse they’ll always take you to and they’ll say see, all these promises have been fulfilled, you premillennialists are stupid to think about this ever being fulfilled in the future. And this is one of the favorite verses. “And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt; they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.” See, the boundaries were all fulfilled so there’s no need to look for this in the future, it already has been fulfilled in the past, God isn’t going to bring about this fulfillment because He already has once. Now this comes about because of a failure to understand fulfilled prophecy. When God promised these boundaries He promised that Israel, not somebody else, would occupy, that Israel would displace these peoples and that Israel would rule. This verse does not say that Israel occupied, it just simply says that Solomon was able to exercise political power over this area. This was a partial fulfillment, yes, in that God let David and his sons exercise political power over the geographical area, but they were never able to exercise complete control.

The reason is given, if you turn back to Judges 2:21-23, this is the answer to those who would say the promise of David’s covenant has already been fulfilled. God says, and remember when we studied the book of Judges, Judges 2 comes chronologically after the book of Judges, not before it. Verse 21, “I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died. [22] That through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. [23] Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered them into the hand of Joshua.” Now, verses 21-22 teach that God, back in the time of the Judges, here’s David, 1000 BC, here’s the time of the Judges, around 1200 BC, around here He said I am through, I am not going to conquer this land so you’re going to have a mixed multitude in this place until something’s done.

Now why did God postpone the total conquest in Joshua’s day and why did David and Solomon never conquer as Joshua did. They never conquered, they dominated but they didn’t conquer, they didn’t conquer in the way that Joshua did. The answer is the sin of Israel, Israel’s redemption was blocked historically at this point of Judges 2; Israel could not gain her full blessing. This is one of those verses that show the full blessing was cancelled, at this point, not cancelled absolutely but cancelled temporarily and this makes way for premillennialism, because before Israel can gain her full blessing she has got to have a righteous heart, and the righteous heart will be given Israel in the future when Christ returns. Until Israel has the righteous heart national heart nationally, and has the righteous king, then she cannot gain her full blessings. This is why we do not have world peace today. The answer why we don’t is that we have world peace when the priestly nation is in position functioning as the priestly nation. We don’t have it operating today.

Let’s go back to Psalm 89, this is just to give you some flavor for the implications of this Davidic Covenant thing. Verse 28 is another feature; we’ve discussed the geographical features of the covenant that is still future, and then verse 28, “My mercy will I keep for him for evermore,” now verse 28 is another passage that will help you cope with those who deny eternal security. Every once in a while you run across somebody that’s holding on with their fingernails thinking that they can lose their salvation if they sin. Now you can’t lose your salvation if you have been regenerated; obviously no way. And the reason for this is… going back to the Old Testament let’s ask ourselves, do we have any precedent for an eternally secure promise of God. Yes, all the covenants. The Abrahamic Covenant was an eternally secure covenant; the Davidic Covenant is an eternally secure covenant. What do I mean eternally secure covenant? I mean that the promise contained in those two covenants will come to pass, period! I do not say will come to pass independently of what men do because the promise of these two covenants, men will do certain things. But these are sovereign eternal covenants and cannot be abrogated in any way, shape or form, and here is the precedent for eternal security.

This is why the whole Old Testament is on the side of eternal security. Remember the Davidic Covenant, it said, verse 28, “I will keep for him forevermore,” turn to 2 Samuel 7, refresh your mind about one little clause there, 2 Samuel 7:15, again to show you the eternal sovereignty of this covenant. If you want an opposite of the eternal covenant, pretend we have a Saul covenant. Now the Saul covenant would have been Saul, I promise you’re going to be king. And then in very, very fine print, “if you’re a good boy.” Saul, I promise that your house will be a royal family if they’re good boys. Now in the Davidic Covenant, what does it say in verse 15, “My chesed,” “My mercy shall not depart away from him,” and that’s talking about the seed, David and his children, “as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.” In other words, David’s family cannot be knocked out of the throne like Saul. That’s the difference. What is the promise? The promise is the throne, the throne is forever in the hands of the Davidic family.

Now there is a specific point of reference for you when you discuss eternal security. And someone says I don’t believe in eternal security, I don’t buy this whole thing about once saved always saved, you say what do you do about David’s house, once king, always king. Isn’t that saying the same thing? Of course it is. What about Abraham’s covenant; once the land is yours it’s always yours, isn’t that unconditional, isn’t that eternally secure? Of course. So if you have the Abrahamic Covenant that’s eternally secure, and if you have the Davidic Covenant that’s eternally secure, why is it so impossible to have eternal security in the New Testament. All these covenants are eternally secure, there’s only one covenant in the Bible I know of that’s not, and that’s the Mosaic. All the other covenants are always eternally secure covenants. So why all of a sudden does the mud hit the fan when we come into the New Testament and declare the eternal security of the believer? Simply because most people who argue against eternal security are kindergarten students of the Old Testament.

Let’s go back to Psalm 89. Now we move from David to his seed, verse 29-37. This is still going on the Davidic Covenant but this section has to do with the seed. “His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. [30] If his children forsake my law, and walk not in mine judgments,” now here is where responsibility enters in. Every time I’ve been in one of these discussions the person who attacks eternal security always gets their liver in a quiver about this fact, oh, what if I sin, this is encouraging license, it’s encouraging licentiousness to hold to eternal security. This is always the criticism you’re going to face; if you stand up for eternal security this is always what you’re going to get thrown back at you, is that by holding to eternal security you are encouraging license. Now as always, if you just pay attention to the Word you have your answer, and here’s the answer. Verse 29, isn’t that declaring eternal security in as strong language as you possibly can? “His seed also will I make to endure forever,” now obviously God anticipated people would say, oh but doesn’t that mean that David’s sons can go out and raise hell; God, you’re allowing David’s sons to have license. So God anticipates this, so what does He say in verse 30?

“If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, [31] If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, [32] Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. [33] Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail.”

Now that is the Biblical answer to the objection to eternal security. God anticipates the objection; why do you suppose God said this in verse 30? Because people were objecting to God the same way they’re objecting to everybody else that teaches eternal security. Same old objection, this happens to be written 1000 BC, so you could say that objection’s been going on for some time, namely about 3,000 years. At least the critics of eternal security might come up with something new in 30 centuries but evidently not because it’s the same thing that’s been repeated time and time again. So this is the answer and the balance is perfect. Eternal security does not encourage license if you understand what it is saying. What it is saying is that you are eternally in the family of God and you literally have a very big daddy, that you can’t get away from, and He has a very big rod that He uses very effectively, and that’s the answer to licentiousness. And it’s simply saying that you are stuck in God’s family and if you wise around he is very, very effective with the rod, and unlike modern educators He does believe in corporal punishment.

Now we go on to the next section of the Psalm, because basically the rest of this goes on, verse 34, 35, etc. [34 “My covenant will I not break, nor will I alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. [35] Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. [36] His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me. [37] It shall be established forever like the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.”]

Now we come to verse 38, the fourth section of the Psalm. In the present time, this is just a summary of verses 38-46, in the present time David’s house is experiencing defeat. Now we come to the tension in the prayer. For 37 verses we’ve had nothing but trust, trust, trust, trust, trust, O Lord I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, Praise You because You’ve done this, because You’ve done that, because You’ve done this, You are faithful, You mercy never slacks, Your faithfulness is always with me, etc. etc. etc. etc. All that’s very fine, but now verse 38 deals with the situation at hand and it wasn’t pleasant.

In verse 38, as I said when I introduced the Psalm, we don’t know exactly when Psalm 89 occurred historically; it could have been just after David’s life, but whatever, they were facing political reversals. Notice what it says. “But You have cast off and abhorred, You have made angry with Your anointed. [39] Thou hast made the covenant of thy servant; Thou has profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. [40] Thou hast broken down all his hedges; Thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin. [41] All that pass by the way spoil him; he is a reproach to his neighbors. [42] Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; Thou has made all his enemies to rejoice. [43] Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and has not made him to stand in the battle. [44] Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. [45] The days of his youth hast thou shortened; Thou hast covered him with shame.”

Now that’s the historical experience. Lots of things we could say but let me just say this; two things about this whole passage. The first thing is, can you imagine how this guy would react to this kind of a disaster if he didn’t believe in eternal security. Faced with a situation in verses 38-45 what would you do, if you did not accept the eternal sovereign validity of the Davidic Covenant, if you had been there. If you had been faced with this kind of a crisis, what do you do? Nothing you can do; if you are not convinced that God’s promises still operate toward you, you have nothing to go back to in a crisis. What are you going to use? Nothing. And this is the damning thing about people who deny eternal security. You will always see the most unstable Christians are the Christians who deny eternal security because when the crisis hits they never can be confident that the promises of God are still valid toward them. They never have that assurance.

I was once talking to a Christian counselor, a professional counselor and I asked him, what percent of your patients are Armenian in their theology, this means they deny eternal security. And he said I would that of the serious neurotics and psychotics that I work with, 85% hold to an Armenian view. I think the facts speak for themselves and the facts are that most neurotics who are believers are people who have denied eternal security, as is always the case. Neurosis and psychosis apart from organic causes in Christians are always due somewhere to a rebellion and a denial of God’s Word. It’s tough sometimes locating where it is but if you persist long enough and sure enough, sooner or later you come out with it; somewhere on down the line, maybe 10, 15 years ago, somewhere there was a rebellion against a specific point of God’s work. And it always is this way and here it is right here.

First let me say this, verse 38-45 teach that in times of disaster if you do not believe in eternal security you can forget it, just throw the towel in, you’re done, you have nothing to go for you in a time of pressure and disaster. And if you’re going to deny eternal security and be cute about it oh, I’m more pious because I don’t believe in eternal security, this kind of thing, forget it, you have nothing going for you in a time of catastrophe, absolutely nothing.

Now the second thing to remark about this section, verses 38-45 is that again this shows us a similar theme that we have encountered over and over again in how to pray. Now this is a great benefit to me anyway in the Psalm series, has been learning the Biblical principles of prayer just by reading through these and absorbing the mentality of the psalmist. Several things we’ve learned about prayer principles. We’ve learned what it means to Jew God, to really get down and do business. What does “Jew-ing” God mean? It means to say God, if You don’t answer this prayer and your glory and essence are at stake, it’s Your reputation, if You want to leave us out here in the mud pile go ahead, it’s Your name. Now that’s essentially Jew-ing God, it’s not bargaining with Him, it’s just saying God, you’ve got to do this because, period, and a few reasons. And it’s a strong form of prayer and the psalmists were very, very good at this.

Another thing and this is the prayer principle that we see tonight that we’ve encountered over and over again… well let’s just say there was another one by way of review and that is that we’ve discovered over and over again that God personally interacts, so in the prayers here you have a personal interaction. Remember God gets mad, to think that we can really do something to get God hacked, He’s not just a computer that sits there and flashes lights regardless of what we do. He gets angry. If you can convince yourself of the book of Revelation, you can just see Him banging the throne, He’s mad, and that’s God’s reaction to things that go on in history. It’s a beautiful doctrine to realize God is so personal that He gets mad at us.

But now we come to the principle I’ve been trying to point out here and that is that God’s promises in some times, in some places, do not come about automatically, that even though He has sovereignly promised to bless us, the means of blessing us is by us asking for it. Now I do not know why this happens, but I do know that it’s an observation of the Psalms that things that He has sovereignly promised, sovereign promises, are “cashed in” we’ll say, by the believer. The sovereignty includes the prediction the believer will cash them in. Just like, for example, God may know for all eternity that you would personally believe in Jesus Christ, but did you automatically get saved? No, you had to exercise your volition in order to receive Christ. It was a definite act of your will that was involved. You had to trust completely in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody did that for you; whoever it was that led you to Christ, whoever it was that wrote it whatever it was that you read or talked to you personally, they couldn’t do the believing for you, you had to believe for yourself; nobody else does it for you. A pastor can’t do it, your parents can’t do it, your roommate can’t do it, nobody can do it except you. But was it always certain that you would believe? Yes. Then it didn’t come automatically? No.

Now if it can happen at the point of salvation, why can’t it happen to other sovereign promises that are given to us, namely that when God sovereignly promises to bless, He has included in the promise two things: He has what He is promising and He knows that you will receive it. There’s always two parts to a sovereign promise, there will always be a reception of what He gives you. Now here you have the psalmist putting the Davidic Covenant on the line and it therefore shows you that the believed in God’s sovereignty and their belief in God’s sovereignty did not cancel volition. The hyper-Calvinists has never understood this; you get people to go to seminary for a year or two and they come out with this hyper-Calvinism or something. It’s very find inside seminary but it doesn’t work in real life and it doesn’t fit Scripture either. And here is a beautiful example in Scripture why hyper-Calvinism is completely anti-Scriptural.

You have a sovereign promise, the Davidic Covenant. What did it promise concretely in this situation? Here you have the king, he’s obviously been dethroned, he’s obviously in a situation of disaster. What does the Davidic Covenant promise this king? That he will reign forever, that he, at least, though he may not physically sit on the throne at least he’s going to survive physically, that’s a minimum at least. He’s going to survive physically; if he behaves himself, positive volition, he can expect blessing. If he would confess his sin he would be on positive volition and he could then petition out of the Davidic Covenant those blessings. He could claim them and that’s what you’ve got here. This is why verses 38-45 depict the catastrophe.

Now verse 46 and to the end, here’s your last section and here’s the petition. You see, this was the lament section, verses 38-45, now with verse 46 we have the petition. “How long, LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Shall Your wrath burn like fire?” You see the vigor of the request. Could a guy make this kind of a request if he didn’t believe in the eternal security of the Davidic Covenant? You see what happens, deny eternal security and what happens to your prayer life. That goes out the window too. Eternal security and sovereignty, properly considered, should bless you in your prayer life; rightly understood, a correct view of the sovereignty of God should stimulate prayer, not hinder it. But usually what happens, somebody latches onto sovereignty and they think they understand it and they don’t, and they say oh well, God is sovereign, it’s going to happen any way so I’ll just sit down and watch it. Wrong; that is determinism, that is not sovereignty. Sovereignty is that God promises to bless me in cooperation with my responsible volition. It puts me on the center stage of the action. It guarantees me victory so that it encourages action but it doesn’t eliminate the action. So this is why in verse 46 you have this petition.

Verse 47, tremendous engineered promise here, look at this. “Remember how short my time is! Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? [48] What man is he that lives, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? [49] Lord, where are Thy former loving-kindnesses, which Thou didst swear unto David in Thy truth? [50] Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people. [51] Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.” The last verse is a closing verse of the whole book of the Psalms, but not really part of this Psalm.

Now if you look at this petition, what is the angle that the psalmist is doing? What’s his lever? He’s got a problem here and he’s got a lever on God? Now what’s he using to try to convince God that God should bless him at this point? Can anyone summarize or describe the reasoning process that this guy is using in his prayer petition here. It’s a well thought out reasoning process. Think what he’s told us already about the Davidic Covenant, he’s described the problem, now what are some of the elements that you noticed, if you were here and watched this man make his petition, what do you notice about how he prays? [someone says something] All right, notice point 1 about this petition, in verses 47 and 48 the psalmist expects to be blessed in history now. He doesn’t expect to wait for all eternity for God’s blessing. He expects some of the blessings to occur when he can experience them, otherwise he has no evidence God’s promises work, does he? Does he? If God’s promises don’t work out does he have any direct… he doesn’t, all he has to go on is past history which is very fine evidence, but this believer expects more, he expects some evidence in the present moment. This is something that perhaps can be used in our own prayer, that we have sufficient evidences for the Christian faith in history in time past, but God, what about evidences in the present hour, that You’re still here, that Your Word is still valid today, what about those evidences. And that’s always a motivation in prayer.

Notice how this removes it; in a time of pressure like this the tendency always is to shift and say God, you got to bless me because of my personal problem. You notice that’s absent here, the psalmist concern isn’t that God’s bless him because of his personal problem, give me an aspirin Still that is not the concern of this psalmist. The concern of the psalmist is God, Your character You said was this, and I don’t see it. It is a demand for God to show Himself. Now that’s the kind of gutsy prayer requests of these psalmists. You see it’s crying out basically over and above and beyond the personal problems; that almost gets dumped in the wastepaper basket as the intensity of the prayer fires up to ever higher levels here; the man has forgotten his personal problem; his one root concern is that he see God in the present time. That’s what he wants. So it’s basically a hunger and thirsting after God, and that’s the guts of the prayer.

So out of a catastrophe has come this desire to see God work, just for the sheer joy and delight of seeing God work.

Now notice something else, verses 50-51, a familiar theme that we’ve seen in previous Psalms. What other lever does this man use to operate on God. What do we see here, we’ve seen this before. [someone says something] All right, not only does he say Lord, the time is short because I don’t have many more years to live, in fact if this keeps on going we’re going to check out real soon, not only does he deal with that problem but he comes over and he works with the nations, so his concern is that his God have a public testimony to the world. That’s what he wants, a public testimony before the world, that God is there and He’s working. So that’s the second lever that is used on God.

Now please read through these Psalms that we’ve gone through, next week we’ll get into another, probably the last one of these Royal Psalms, but as you work with these think what we’ve gone over again and again in a time of application to prayer. Watch and learn how these guys make it. These are real men facing real situations that you and I face all the time, sometimes, thank God, we only face them once in our lifetime but the Psalms are there. And that’s how to pray your way out of them, and God’s Word gives you teaching; this is the word of the prophet, don’t come to the Bema Seat and say Lord, I didn’t know how to pray because you know what the answer is going to be: where you when I told you how to do it.